Google Voice Launches to All as Google Eyes Integration with Google Apps

Google Voice is a Web calling and phone management application.
The program, which is used by more than 1.4 million people in the world, gives users one number to ring
their home, work and mobile phones.

The apps also lets users make free calls and text messages in the United
States and Canada, and make low-cost international calls, among other
capabilities.

Calls and messages can be accessed and managed through a phone or a Web
browser, allowing users to listen to messages, forward messages, add a caller
to an address book or block a caller as spam, and transcribe voicemail
messages.

To this point, users had to request and receive an invite to try Google
Voice. Google wanted to be sure it put the infrastructure in place to handle a
rollout to the general public, Google Voice Product Manager Vincent Paquet told
eWEEK.

Moreover, Paquet and his team wanted to add a number of capabilities along
the way.

These included an HTML5-based mobile Web app (created after Apple rejected the original Google Voice for iPhone app), the
ability to use Google Voice with an existing number, an integrated voicemail
player to play messages in Gmail, and smaller perks such as SMS to e-mail and
the Google Voice extensions for Google's Chrome Web browser.

While Google Voice has come a long way, Paquet said he and his team are
working hard to shore up the app's future. Google acquired Gizmo5, which makes a Web-based VOIP (voice over IP) client
that lets users make phone calls over the Internet.

Paquet declined to say how the Gizmo5 assets are being leveraged. Gizmo5
would give Google Voice the capability to enable one computer to call another,
or the computer to call any phone, similar to Skype. Google Voice used Gizmo5
to connect endpoints before acquiring the company.

"We designed Google Voice to be endpoint-agnostic and we certainly want
it to be accessible from any type of endpoint, not just phones," Paquet
said. "The direction in which we are going to keep working is to use the
Web, which is probably the best UI there is in the world, to give you more
control and personalization over your communications."

Google Voice to Get Enhanced Even More

That includes building features that users can access the same way across
all their phones, which has been a challenge with so many disparate phone
makers and telecommunications carriers.

Expect Google Voice for the enterprise, as well. Bradley Horowitz, vice
president of product management at Google, told eWEEK last December Google Voice is coming as a product
within Google Apps.

Indeed, Google acquired GIPS Technologies, which makes software for processing
high-definition audio and video over the Web. Google could conceivably use the
GIPS technology with Google Voice to offer enterprise VOIP.

When these solutions, along with the rumor that his team was building a
desktop application for Google Voice, were suggested to Paquet, he declined to
comment. "We keep testing things, and some make it and some don't."

The next level of efficiency might be to integrate Google Voice with
specific Google Apps beyond just Gmail. For example, Google could integrate
Google Voice with Google Talk to place audio calls, though it is unclear how
Gizmo5 would fit in here.

Google could also integrate Google Voice with Google Calendar and provide
users with notifications to their phones when an appointment is coming up.

Google Voice integration with Google Docs could send Voice notifications to
Docs users' smartphones when a document or presentation had been altered.

Looking outside the realm of Google Apps, Google could also integrate Google
Voice with popular social services, such as Facebook and Twitter. Paquet did
not comment on whether such plans were in the mix, but he appreciated the
suggestions.

Noting that the Google Voice team builds most of its features based on user
feedback, Paquet encouraged users to tell him what they would like to see in
the app. Readers are welcome to leave suggestions in the comments section. They
will be passed along to Paquet.